Monday, March 10, 2008

2010 Census at Risk

There are problems with the 2010 census.

The 2010 Census is at serious risk of massive cost increases and delays caused by problems with a contract to develop handheld computers that the Census Bureau plans to use to collect data.

Later in the article is this line:

"So serious is the crisis that if it is not dealt with immediately, it could threaten the integrity of the 2010 count," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., in his opening statement at the hearing. "We now find ourselves facing a situation in which we might have to revert to conducting the census entirely by paper -- no differently than it was done in the 19th century."


I sincerely hope we don't revert to early 19th century censuses. Can you imagine having only counts of the number of people within certain age groups by sex? As a researcher, I'd prefer the early 20th century model if we have to go back to written censuses. Instead of check-marks for radios, they could have check-marks for Blu-Ray DVDs, iPhones, or iPods.

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